Discuss Land's End like you did J.Crew - Page 2

Lands End is awful. The comparisons here to K-Mart (whom owns them) are not far off. The clothing is designed to match the bland generic tastes of the average overweight baby boomer whom fancies himself to be a rugged individualist.

You can see this in the outdoor themes companies like LL Bean and Lands End like to promote in their advertising and designs. Likewise there was even a special edition of the subaru forester released a couple years ago labeled the "LL Bean Edition", suggesting rugged 4x4 traction and Bean somehow re-enforce each other in customer's minds.

My recent experience with LE shirts is quite different. After reading the Trad's blind oxford tasting, I ordered a Tailored Fit Hyde Park ocbd and was very pleased with the purchase. Most noticeable differences with BB's Slim Fit Supima ocbd are slightly shorter collar points and a bit lighter weigth fabric, both which I don't mind.

I subsequently picked up a couple of their (must iron) Tailored Fit cotton Paintbrush shirts. Imo, those actually surpass BB's regular (must iron) cotton shirt offerings (excluding Golden Fleece and Luxury shirts). My shirts also displayed surprisingly good pattern matching. And fwiw, back yoke is split and mitered. I think if you compare similar shirts by both brands, LE is either pretty damn close to BB or better. Definitely a better value than BB, if that matters. There, I said it.

I have not tried all of them, of course, but the ones I have seen have felt cheap. Even ordered one of their "luxury" shirts once, liking the pattern, but returned it without hesitation. Perhaps there are better, but nothing I've seen has inspired me to continue testing the waters.

Funny, my opinion on the LE shirts lines up exactly with Boyer's. That guy is

Are we talking the "Lands End Canvas" stuff? Or educate me if the Canvas Line isn't any different.

it probably all depends on the context. if you're an igent looking for a shirt to wear with your rubinacci ... almost assuredly not. my go-to work shirts before were nordstrom's house brand, which are about 10% nicer than lands end at double the price (and need to be tailored in order to not look like tents). i haven't found their khakis baggy at all, certainly not compared to Bills. but then, i've got a kind of baggy body, so ...

LE was purchased by Sears, not K-Mart, in 2002.

I really like a lot of their shirts and ties and pants. Their No-Iron OCBDs are really nice and I love their knit ties (still made in Italy). I have several pairs of LE No-Iron NantuckeT Reds poplin dress pants and I love them.

LE shoes, on the other hand, are to be avoided. 'Nuff said.

With the current 30% off promo, I purchased a white and blue must-iron Tailored Fit Hyde Park OCBDs, along with some crew neck sweatshirts since the LE Canvas cuts are slimmer than most others (on a sweatshirt, that is)

LE's quality to price ratio is very good. At their price range, it's the best you can find. Their attention to detail often puts them above higher-priced offerings. Example: the placket on my must-iron LE oxfords comes out flat wash after wash because of quality construction, while more expensive shirts from Gitman or Brooks do not.

As far as style, you can sort through the cubicle-wear and find good stuff. I'd wager with a good tailor you could emulate half of what you see from ritzier outfitters. Fit is often baggy, though, even with the "tailored" fit.

The placket on your lands end shirts comes out of the wash unpuckered because it's been fused, i.e., glued to the interfacing. I think it's open to debate whether that's desireable on a more casual shirt like an OCBD.

Anyway, Lands End shirts are comparable to Brooks Brothers. A good deal in my opinion, since it's a mid-range shirt for a low-end price (at least on sale).

I'm a huge fan of LE's silk knit ties. I don't like the polyester grosgrain ribbon on the underside of the neck area of the tie because it gets caught inside the knot when knotting the tie so I just remove it with a seam ripper and life's good.

It's not the puckering I'm talking about, it's the folding over of the shirt-side edge. This gentleman always seems to have this problem: Don't get me wrong, I love me some puckering, and the "higher end" LE shirts do pucker nicely. I guess the fusing may have something to do with the laying-flat issue, but I was under the impression that the type of stitch used in the placket, along with the folding of the fabric, keeps the edges in check. Hence this is an oversight in a $125 shirt.

Lands End serves as my source for OCBDs. I'd prefer to buy BBs shirts, but I need tall sized shirts. Hyde Parks work well enough, but I wish they offered them in more color choices (like university stripes). Otherwise, I seldom purchase anything from LE.

All the LE shirts I've seen have a chain stitch on the placket. This is pretty standard, though you do see some better makers using single-needle. There's also several ways to make the placket -- you can fold over the shirt fabric twice (if there's no pattern and no right-side), or you can do the same thing with an extra fold on the inside for fabrics with a wrong side. And of course you can make a seprate strip and sew it on if it's got a pattern. I've actually seen a lot of high-end shirts that're self-interfaced (i.e., all shirt fabric).

Some are made with a layer of stiffer interfacing as in the third method. I imagine that this, and the distance from the edge it's stitched, determine whether the placket will fold over in the wash. You often see english-style shirts with stitching farther from the edge (i.e., 3/8" on each side instead of 1/4"). It's hardly a mark of an inferior shirt, though.

At any rate, it's easy to iron the placket down, so I don't see why this is a concern.

My selvedge chambray shirt from RRL puckers the most of anything I have. Is fabric irrelevant?